David Artell said Crewe's decent performance was little comfort after they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.

The Alex went down 2-1 to Championship side Bolton despite having the better chances.

Manager Artell said: ""I'm disappointed we lost, cups are about winning games of football. Did we perform all right? Yes, but we lost the game. So as much as I can take some comfort from the performance, we lost the game.

"I want to win games of football. We've conceded four goals in two games, we can't carry on like that.

"We conceded from a set-piece again, that's two in two. If we carry on like that we won't go anywhere.

"There was plenty of pleasing things, we can take comfort in a decent performance. But I don't a team of nearly men, I want a team of winners.

"It's part of their their development, they've got to become winners.

"We could have gone two up, then they put three subs on and within five minutes the game had changed. That's the difference between a Championship squad and a League Two squad.

"We performed admirably. I'm not displeased at the performance I'm displeased at the result. We didn't help ourselves in the second half, but we ran a good team quite close.

"I don't want it all to be negative, but I can't stand here and be positive either. We roll onto Newport on Saturday and they will be a real stiff test."